In
ancient Greek mythology the gods punished Sisyphus for being an all-round
jerk by having him roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll down
the other side and then roll it back up again - for all eternity. (Hence the
term Sisyphean, which according to the American Heritage Dictionary means
"endlessly laborious or futile.")

There is another Greek
legend, this time of Cassandra, who could see the future but couldn't change
it because no-one would believe her prophecies. In the
Terminator movies Sarah Connor knows that an AI
called SkyNet, built to handle North America's nuclear arsenal, would go
rogue the very moment it is switched on and destroy most of humanity by
causing World War III. She knows this because SkyNet sent a cyborg back in
time to kill her before she could give birth to her son John Connor, who
would one day lead the human resistance against SkyNet.

In this short-lived TV
series Sarah Connor tries to get back at SkyNet by making sure that it never
gets built in the first place. Only problem is that when one applies plot
logic to it then one cannot change the past, something which SkyNet must
have learned when all his efforts to kill John Connor in the past have
failed. If you sent back a robot to kill your enemy before he is born and
you succeed, then that means that you never sent back a robot in the first
place, which means that he was never killed . . . and so on. This circular
logic will make your head explode and therefore it is probably a good thing
that time travel probably isn't possible.

In Terminator: The Sarah
Connor Chronicles, Sarah (played by a constipated-looking Lena Headey
who is set to star in HBO's upcoming adaptation of George R.R. Martin's über
A Game of Thrones
fantasy novel) is both Cassandra and Sisyphus. All her efforts to change the
future are futile and no one believes her story about a future war between
man and killer machines because they think that she is nuts. The network
writers are of course also Sisyphus: they have to expand the concept behind
a tight 108 minute mid-'Eighties action movie into as god knows how many
episodes - as with most TV shows they must churn out the scripts for as long
as the ratings are good . . .

I mention all this because
the second season of this highly publicized television series has a feeling
of aimlessness hovering over it until about the halfway mark when things
start to pick up. In the last handful of episodes things really start to
pick up as the second season careens towards its inevitable season finale
cliff-hanger. If the show were consistently as focused as it is during these
episodes, then who knows? Sarah Connor Chronicles might have been
renewed for a third season. Except it wasn't and viewers of the show will
now never see things resolved, but neither would Sarah Connor because, you
see, you can't change the future . . .

(To their credit the
writers try to solve the "logically you can't change the past" dilemma by
introducing the concept of alternative timelines or rather multiple worlds.
You can change the timeline you're in right now and prevent the rise of the
machines, but some other alternate universe version of you would be stuck in
a hellhole run by malevolent AIs - but hey, as long as it's not you, right?)

WORTH IT?Sarah
Connor Chronicles could easily have descended into a
"terminator-of-the-week" type of show in the same way that Clark Kent has to
face off against a different super-powered meteor freak each week in
Smallville. Instead the producers
opted for a more serialized approach. Sure, things feel a bit directionless
at points (as TV shows are wont to do), but this shouldn't distract from the
reality that Sarah Connor Chronicles is a well-written and
intelligent show. Just because those network writers have to haul a giant
boulder endlessly up and down a hill with each episode doesn't mean that
they can't do a good job at it.

The acting is OK and the
production values are decent too - for a TV show. Special effects have come
a long way since that liquid metal man impressed audiences so back in
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - every kid with a PC
can do effects like that nowadays. But Cameron's movies still beat its
various spin-offs and sequels hands down when it comes to sheer
adrenaline-pumping action and spectacle. No giant trucks falling off bridges
in Sarah Connor Chronicles!

RECOMMENDATION:
Sarah Connor Chronicles is yet another sci-fi show sadly cancelled
before it could satisfactorily finish its run. One can hope that maybe SyFy
can pick up the series or something, but the odds are against it. Should you
invest more than 42 dollars and 975 minutes of your life (there are 22
one-hour episodes spread over five discs in this set) into something with no
resolution? That's up to you: if open-ended "conclusions" drive you nuts
then give it a skip. If you're a science fiction fan then this particular
ride has lots to offer. Pity, there's no end destination . . .